gap

Forms

gap n (genitive gaps, plural gǫp) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Old Norse gapa (“to gape, open the mouth wide; to shout”), a noun made from the verb.^[2][3][1] Köbler likewise sets the noun beside the verb.^[4] The verb goes back to Proto-Germanic *gapōną (“to gape”), which also gave Middle Low German gapen and Middle High German gaffen (“to gape”).^[5][3]

Hellquist traces the group to an Indo-European root ⟨ghab⟩, a variant of the root of the word for “fork”,^[6] while the UT lexicon and Pokorny's root list file it under Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to gape, yawn”).^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in Vǫluspá in the Codex Regius of the Eddic poems, of 1250–1300, in the phrase gap var ginnunga “there was a gaping void”, the chasm before creation.^[9][10][11] The sense is the literal one, an open gulf.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Beside the yawning opening, the noun came to mean the open mouth's noise: shouting, crying and wild, foolish behaviour.^[13][14][15] ONP has a single citation for “opening” and eight for “noise, shouting”, mostly from sagas.^[16] The first sense lives on chiefly in the mythological Ginnungagap.^[11][17]

Modern Icelandic gap means “opening, gap”, and the old sense of exuberance is marked obsolete.^[2][18] The Middle English gap “opening in a wall or hedge, breach” is from Old Norse, recorded in place names from the mid-13th century and as a common noun from the early 14th.^[19][20]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – gap var ginnunga in Vǫluspá, in the Codex Regius GKS 2365 4to.^[9]
• 1312 – með ópi ok miklu gapi ok gani “with shouts and great noise and frenzy”, the first dated record of the sense “shouting”.^[16]
• 1320–1350 – gapi in Njáls saga in AM 132 fol.^[21]
• early 14th century – the English word gap “breach, opening”, from Old Norse.^[20][19]

Meanings

Noun

1. a gap, an opening or empty space, a chasm.^[13][16][22]
2. shouting, crying, noise; foolish, unruly behaviour.^[13][16][15]

Word family

• gapsmaðr
• gaplyndi
• Ginnungagap

Descendants

• Icelandic gap^[1]
• Faroese gap^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk gap^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål gap^[1]
• Swedish gap^[1]
• Danish gab^[1]
• Middle English gap (→ English gap)^[19][20]

Related words

• gapa
• gapi

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. gapa
3. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 156
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. gap
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. gap
7. ^ Slocum, Jonathan, ed., Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. gap
8. ^ Krause, Todd B.; Slocum, Jonathan, Old Norse Online, Early Indo-European OnLine, Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, p. s.v. gap
9. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. GKS 2365 4to
10. ^ Gering, Hugo (1915), Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda, 4th ed., Paderborn, p. 61
11. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 191
12. ^ Gering, Hugo (1903), Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Liedern der Edda, Halle: Waisenhaus, p. col. 324
13. ^ a b c Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. gap
14. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. gap
15. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 185
16. ^ a b c d Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. gap
17. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 172
18. ^ Sigfús Blöndal (1920–1924), Islandsk-dansk ordbog, Reykjavík, p. 239
19. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
20. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
21. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 132 fol
22. ^ Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. gap